Dear Fellow Floridians:

As Florida’s Chief Financial Officer, I have the unique opportunity of overseeing the state’s unclaimed property program. This program reunites Floridians with unclaimed funds that were held in dormant accounts at financial institutions, insurance and utility companies, securities and trust holdings, as well as tangible items from abandoned safety deposit boxes. If companies are unable to locate their customers, the unclaimed funds or property are sent to my Bureau of Unclaimed Property.

Property can become unclaimed for many reasons. Life gets busy and it’s easy to lose track of paperwork. Whether we’re holding a $50 deposit from a now-closed utility account or $1000 from a forgotten savings account, it’s your money and we work daily to reconnect you with what is rightfully yours.

We have successfully returned record amounts of unclaimed property since the program’s inception in 1961. In fact, we’ve returned more than $1 billion to Floridians during the last four-and-a-half years.

However, if and when all efforts to reconnect owners with contents from abandoned safe deposit boxes have been exhausted, these treasures become available for purchase during our annual unclaimed property auction. This auction offers the public an opportunity to bid on these unique and often historic items. All of the proceeds received from the sale of these items are deposited into unclaimed property accounts, and held by the state until the owner comes forward.

This year’s public auction will be held at the Jacksonville Marriott, and I hope you will join us if you’re nearby. We’ll showcase the items during our public preview on Friday, July 31, and the live auction begins at 10 a.m. on Saturday, August 1.

While millions of owners have been successfully reunited with their unclaimed property, we are currently holding millions of individual accounts waiting to be claimed. To learn more about our upcoming auction, and to check if we’re holding an account in your name, visit
www.FLtreasurehunt.org.

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Florida: Growing Hub for International Trade

Florida’s international trade totaled $153 billion last year
accounting for one-sixth of the state’s economic output and
supporting an estimated 2.4 million jobs, both direct and indirect.
These are impressive numbers, ranking our state among the top
five in the U.S. for international trade and commerce. But, I believe
in coming years these numbers will grow exponentially.

Thanks to our geographic locale at the center of the hemisphere
and strategic infrastructure investments, Florida is well positioned
to compete for new trade opportunities on a truly global scale.

Florida Economic Briefs

Florida has the fifth fastest job growth among statesAccording to a new report by Kiplinger, Florida has the fifth fastest employment gains in 2015. Florida’s job growth is estimated that it will increase by 3.2 percent in 2015 and 3.4 percent in 2016—significantly higher than the national rate of 2.1 percent. Leading this growth are construction, tourism, health care, transportation and technology.
Source: Kiplinger

Housing market increases in JuneIn June, there were 27,729 closed home sales in Florida, 12 percent higher than May (24,789 sales) and 20 percent higher than June of last year (23,181 sales). Additionally, the median sale price increased to $203,500, 2 percent higher than last month ($200,000) and 10 percent higher than June of last year ($185,000).
Source: Florida Realtors